pruncle

My niece, who is a reporter for the Oregonian will beinterviewing the guitarist from Kiss.

country music response to 9/11

I'm a bit late on the bandwagon, but I found this amusing:

i can wrecord with wreckless — for a price

My wife found another Kickstarter campaign for me to get behind.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/310096071/wreckless-eric-and-amy-rigby-new-album

Wreckless Eric is one of my absolute favorite musicians. I should follow that up with a blogpost describing my history as a Wreckless Eric fan. Until then, take my word for it. Anyway, Eric and his wife, Amy Rigby, are working on their next album (it will be their third album together), and raising money on Kickstarter. The big thing for me is the reward for a $500 pledge:

Record a track with Eric & Amy at The Souther Domestic Facility — spend a day with us in our studio recording a track of your choice. If you don't have a song we'll help you write one. Take the lid off the mystery... See how we do it... come away sounding exactly like us... And if you need accomodation we'll put you up for the night. This offer is designed for individuals, not for bands without prior agreement. This reward includes a free download of the album.

So I can make a demo with Eric and Amy of one of my songs. A recording of a song I wrote, with one of my musical idols playing on it. Actually, I suspect he'll be singing too, since I can't sing on key or in tune. Maybe I'll end up with a usable demo (which would make this cheap for a usable demo), or maybe I'll come away with a recording that I love but that can't be used as a demo. Either way, it's an extravagant gift to myself. But I know that if I don't do this now, when I can, then I'll spend years kicking myself, that I missed a chance to record a track with Wreckless Eric.

Not sure which song I'll want to record. I've had thoughts of writing something new for the occaison -- especially since I have a couple works in progress. Maybe I can finish one of them off. Barring that, I'll probably bring demos and lyric sheets of everything I have and ask Eric and Amy what they would want to work with me on. And, I have the maybe-I'll win-the-lottery type of fantasy that they'll like one of my songs so much that they'll want to record it themselves for a future album. Amy Rigby is, afterall, known within the New York City C&W scene.

For now, here's the only "official" Wreckless Eric video I've been able to find on Youtube. Be aware that it's like 30 years old:

a kickstarter campaign i can get behind

So my wife found this on Kickstarter.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/180960585/strangelys-first-album

A musician and circus performer named Strangely. In some ways he kind of reminds me of The Dusty Buskers about whom I blogged previously. But he seems less wedded to any one genre, unless "fun" qualifies as a genre. He's also got the coolest kickstarter awards I've seen yet. Makes me wish I had an extra $10,000 lying around. I don't. But if you do, please consider donating it to Strangely's Kickstarter campaign. I'm pledging my nineteen bucks 'cos I want a copy of the album.

Good luck, Strangely.

happy birthday

a song in klingon?

We were in the car with the radio on, and they started playing Blue Swede's version of "Hooked on a Feeling." During the "ooka-chaka" (spelling?) part at the beginning, my sin commented that it sounded like the song was in Klingon.

another word on soundtracks

So, one of my kids is watching the movie, Paul, on the internet. And I hear it beginning to the strains of the new wave song, "Another Girl, Another Planet." And recently I was in the room when someone started watching Bad Teacher on DVD. That movie opens with Rockpile's "Teacher Teacher." In both cases, hearing this made me want to watch the movie. Never mind that I have both songs on CD, and otherwise had no interest in seeing the movie. Somehow, though, the inclusion of a song I like tells my brain that I'll like the movie. Even if I won't.

It reminds me how, two years ago, I was looking on Youtibe for Wreckless Eric videos, and found a scene from Stranger Than Fiction, in which Will Ferrell picks up a guitar in his date's apartment and starts singing "(I'd Go the) Whole Wide World." Video follows:

I remember seeing that, and my estimation of the movie shot up. I still haven't bothered seeing it, but still...

meet the xylopholks

I was walking through the Union Square subway station yesterday, and heard xylophone music. It was coming from a corner where there is often a musician or band playing as part of the Transit Authority's Music Under New York program.

Sure enough, I recognized the yellow and black banner identifying the performers as "Xylopholks." Playing under the banner were two people -- a man in a penguin costume (I would later realize it was a skunk costume, but my imprerssion was penguin) and a woman (I think) in a pink gorilla costume. The punk (that's penguin/skunk mix) was playing xylophone while the pink gorilla was slappinng a stand-up bass.

The music was happy and upbeat, kind of ragtimish. The xylophone was intriguing. I didn't have time enough to watch for very long, so I bought a CD ($5) and was on my way.

Rather than try to describe Xylophopholks, I'll let their website do it for them:

The XYLOPHOLKS are a dynamic group of musicians who mostly play novelty ragtime music from the 1920′s (featuring the xylophone!). They do so while wearing furry animal costumes. The XYLOPHOLKS wish to make people happy and perhaps even dance. Please feel free to contact us about providing music and entertainment for your events

Can't complain about that. Apparently, who plays in the group depends on what gig you catch. Here's them (or a proper subset of them) on their 5 Borough Bodega tour:

As to the CD? Not bad. I'd be lying if I said that, without the costumes, the charm is still all there. On the other hand, its pleasant music. Not generally a genre I'm into. It's the kind of stuff that I'm happy to listen to for a track at a time between other things -- i.e., as part of a mix. But I'm not interested enough to listen to the whole disc at once.

israeli pop as spaghetti western theme music

Yesterday I posted about how I have gotten into the theme music from spaghetti westerns.

I neglected to mention that some of my favorite Israeli pop music sounds very similar to the spaghetti western music, and wouldn't feel out of place in those films.

A few examples follow:

First,שיירת הרוכבים ("Caravan of Riders"), an oft-covered song by The Duda'im:

The second one is called חמישה פחות אחד (which translates to "Five Less One"). It's by "Benny's Friends," It's in a sense, a toast to a missing friend. I assume it's a friend who died in war. Interestingly, the album with this song also has a cover of "Caravan of Riders"):

Finally, there's Ron Eliran, performing שארם -א -שיח ("Sharm-A-Sheikh" -- it's the name of a town in the Sinai). This was a song dating from the 1967 war, in which Eliran sings about returning to Sharm-A-Sheikh a second time -- he's singing in the first-person plural, as in "We returned to you a second time." The first time, presumably, was during the 1956 war. There is a Youtube video with the original hit version. But since it, like the two above, isn't really a "video" in the full sense, I've decided, for this song, to include a live concert version:

Now, don't any of those three songs sound like they could have been in a spaghetti western?

spaghetti western themes

The Film Forum, an artsy movie house in Greenwich Village, has been having a spaghetti western festival. I spent most of Sunday with my son, watching the "Man With No Name" trilogy. That's after spending Friday with him watching thee other movies -- Hellbenders, Face to Face and Death Rides a Horse. This was kind of a followup to our taking a cinema history course at a local community college. The class, which ended a couple months ago, concentrated on spaghetti westerns.

Through this, I've been getting into the music from Spaghetti Westerns. Of course, there's the classic of the genre, Ennio Morricone's theme from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Give a listen:

That's a strangely copmpelling melody that combines latin elements with Duane Eddy-style twangy guitar. And the harmonica. But it's instrumental, which for me is a strike against it. In a sense it's more mood music than song. But interestingly it does build on the theme music from its predecessors, A Fistful of Dollars and For a Few Dollars More.

In terms of real songs, I was drawn to the theme from Django, a film starring Franco Nero. The professor showed us a scene from that movie, which was enough for me to seek it out on YouTube. Really good movie. But my point in mentioning it here is that I love the theme song. Listen here:

In the theatre, between films, they were playing a ctachy song that I didn't recognize. I did, however, make a point of remembering the line, "There's just kind of man that you can trust. That's a dead man. Or a Gringo like me." When I got home I was able (with the help of the intertubes) identify it as a song from Gunfight at Red Sands:



16 × 16 =/= 14 × 18

I was in the car today, listening to Allan Sherman with a friend. The last song on Sherman's second album, My Son the Celebrity, is "Shticks of One and a Half a Dozen of the Other." It's a medley of bits, kind of like "Shticks and Stones," the medley that closed out his first album, My Son, the Folk Singer.

Give a listen:

That first bit, a partody of "Molly Malone" (AKA "Cockles and Mussels" or "In Dublin's Fair City"), contains the line "My Molly stands out 'cos she weighs eighteen stone" followed by the parenthetical comment, "That's 256 pounds." Problem is, it's not. A stone is (or, more precisely, was when the song was written) 14 pounds. So 18 stone is equal to 252 pounds.

I am guessing that Sherman's mistake came about by assuming that (x+a) × (x-a) = x × x and therefore that 18 × 14 = 16 × 16 = 256. That's an error that's common among the inumerate. I remember when I was in college, working on the campus newspaper. A friend enlarged a photo to 125% of its original size. Then shrank the enlarged copy to 75% of its size. He was puzzled that the final version was smaller than the original.

I know it's not really a big deal. But it still hurts my ears every time I hear that line.

As a consolation prize, let me share with you a video I found while looking for the one posted above:

If you want this to be relevant to this year's presidential election, note the bit that starts at about 1:05.

happy birthday to me

the importance of soundtracks

Over Memorial Day, my family and I were in Baltimore for a drive-in movie. There's a theatre there that does an all-night showing for Memorial Day weekend and again for Labor Day weekend. It kind of drove home to me how important it can be to choose the right background music for a movie.

The first show was The Pirates! Band of Misfits. It wasn't a particularly good movie. But I loved the soundtrack. "London Calling" by the Clash, "Swords of 1000 Men" by Tenpole Tudor... It kept me interested enough to that I was watching just to see what would be played next. It reminded me of the Shrek movies, which had great choices in their soundtracks.

Dark Shadows, which was the last feature (they showed four movies), was set in 1972, so they needed period tracks to enhance the sensation that you were watching the 1970s. During dinner, the daughter puts Donovan's "Season of the Witch." That came out in 1966, so it fits. I also couldn't help noticing the T. Rex album, The Slider, which came out in 1972.

Anyone interested in "Season of the Witch" can hear it here:

Men in Black 3 and Think Like a Man didn't have much memorable in their soundtracks (though I'll admit that the latter was very R&B heavy and I'm not much of a fan of what constitutes R&B today).

a shortcoming of access

In keeping a database of my CD collection, I find myself very frustrated that Microsoft Access doesn't have a built-in time function. I'm not talking about time as in on a clock. It has that. I'm talking about elapsed time so that I can have that as a field in the table of tracks. Instead I have to fake it with two fields, one for minutes and one for seconds. So a tack that is, say, three minutes and 29 seconds long has 3 in the minutes field and 29 in the seconds field. An alternative would be to have just seconds, in which case the same track would have 209. But what I'd prefer is one field in which I input 3:29.

Anyone know a workaround?

i don't eulogize much anymore

There have been a few recent high profile deaths in the music world, and I havenm't commented on them. When I started this blog, early this year, and I was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, I commented on the deaths of Johnny Otis and Etta James -- two figures who were very influential but not exactly household names any more.

Now, we have Robin Gibb, Adam Yauch and Donna Summer all died within a short period (and Dick Clark died a bit ago. And I failed to note any of those deaths or eulogize them. I did, of course, eulogize Davy Jones when he died.

So why the difference? Well, to a certain degree it was that I was no longer quite as bright-tailed and bushy-eyed. Add to that the fact that these were three musicians about whom I didn't have a lot to say (and about whom others had already said much).

My thoughts on them?
1) Donna Summer: Of course I know the name and some of her music, but it was never my thing. My strongest association is to the song "Disco Suicide" which Mad Magazine put out sometime around 1980 as part of a disco special. There was a couplet. "If that truns out to be a bummer / I'll swallow a casette of Donna Summer."

2) Adam Yauch: I kind of liked the Beastie Boys, especially some of their early stuff. The Licensed to Ill album had some really good tracks. I also liked "She's On It," which predates that album. Oh, also, their original drummer -- Kate Schellenbach -- was in my high school class. But we didn't know each other. I wouldn't recognize her on the street and she, of course, wouldn't recognize me either. That was true when we were in high school too.

3) Robin Gibbs: Yes, I know the BeeGees were huge. But they have never really been part of my consciousness, except maybe for the soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever.

So now you know why I didn't eulogize them.

squeaky clean still around

My wife and (two of) my kids went to see Squeaky Clean today. I couldn't make it -- day job and all -- but it brings back memories.

I first became aware of Squeaky Clean when I was in college, working as a DJ at the campus radio station and Music Editor of one of the campus newspapers. This was during the rockabilly revival (or at least soon after), and here was a Long Island-based three-piece band doing good fun '50s style rockabilly. They were fronted by Glenn Paul Manion and Suzanne "Smitty" Smithline. There was a third member, but I'm too lazy right now to look up his name. I reviewed their eponymous EP (released on their own label Drip Dry Records). I still remember the standout tracks, "Cops and Robbers Love" and "Squeaky Clean" and "Going to a Party" -- I think I just named like half the songs on the disk. I also interveiwed them when they played at The Cellar, which was Queens College's on-campus bar/club.

At some point, while I was still in college, Manion and Smithline put together another band, Combo Limbo, and did an album under that name. This was still fun rock and roll, but it had a more contemporary feel than the retro-rockabilly of SC, which was still a functioning band. From the Combo Limbo album, I still remember highlights such as "Motorman," "Big Big Girl" and (my favorite) "Smile When You Say Goodbye."

So fast forward years (OK, decades) later.

Squeaky Clean now does a variety of different types of shows, adapting and customizing for the venue. One of their specialties is a show for schoolkids, covering the history of rock and roll, and working in comments and lessons about pop culture over the last 50-60 years. Now, I generally don't like "kids music" because I find that it's often preachy, with too much emphasis on the lesson rather than the music. SC fortunately manages to evade that trap. They don't talk down to the kids. And everyone can take what they want from it.

They also do corporate events and family-friendly shows.

The not-entirely intuitive URL for their website is http://www.gmfmusic.com/.

Enjoy...

now i've heard the snakes

One band that I'd never heard (live or on record) is The Snakes. After the breakup of Ducks Deluxe, Nick Garvey formed the Snakes. From what I'd heard they recorded one single before calling it quits (after which Nick formed The Motors with his formwer Ducks Deluxe bandmate Andy McMasters). But I'd never heard that single.

So this evening I was browsing Youtube and found the Snakes' version of the Randy Newman song, "Have You Seen My Baby." It's audio-only, but that's OK:

After that, I made a conscious effort to find the Snakes -- I found the one above when I was searching for Ducks Deluxe. So I have now found two more:

Now the only question I have is where did that "Have You Seen My Baby" come from if they only did the one single (which I presume was "Teenage Head" b/w "Little Queenie." My best guess is that they recorded "...Baby" but had never released it and it eventually ended up on Light Up The Dynamite which is a Dutch compilation of various artists.

"Teenage Head" has never been one of my favorite Flamin' Groovies' songs, and I'm not particularly crazy about this version. But at least I got to hear it.

UPDATE: Just noticed that the cover from the Snakes' single (as shown in two of the above videos) was "Teenage Head" b/w "Lights Out." So I was wrong, above, when I guessed that the b-side was Little Queenie. I can't find their version of "Lights Out" on Youtube, and it does make me wonder where that recording of "Little Queenie" came from. I guess the search continues.

nugent, dixie chicks, and politics in music

It's been a while since Ted Nugent's rant about the President (video following this paragraph) and I've been meaning to write about it. But I've been taking a while to come to a conclusion. I'm still not really sure, but I'll take a stab at it.

First, a few random thoughts:

• Ted Nugent is a loon.
• I've never understood why people take seriously the political ramblings of a loon.
• I think it's wrongheaded (and in many cases purposely so) to point to the head-chopping-off rhetoric as a real threat. It was very clear in context that he was talking metaphorically. I would be willing to bet that, when the Secret Service met with him afterwards about those comments, what they had to say was something along the lines of "Uh, we know you weren't really threatening the President, but will you tone it down some?"
• While I don't think those comments can correctly be construed as threats, they were clearly over the top.

When I first heard about the rant, and went to see the video, my reaction was kind of a combination head-shaking and shoulder-shrugging, along with a sigh. It's a free country, he has a first ammendment right to say what he wants. Yes, I know that that doesn't include explicit threats. But as I noted above I don't think Nugent's comments can correctly be taken as threats. As an aside, it does remind me of Axe Cop.

But what's significant is that I didn't react as strongly as I did when Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks proclaimed her embarrasment that George W. Bush was from the same state as they were. To be sure, I didn't call for boycotts, or go and trash CDs, or anything like that. similarly shrugged, shook my head, and acknowledged her first ammendment rights (she was, of course, not in the US at the time, so I don't know how that affects the calculus, but the principle is the same. But the difference is that since then I have a visceral dislike of Natalie Maines and the Dixie Chicks, which I just have to admit I don't have about Ted Nugent. Not that any of that has any effect on my CD-purchasing decisions. I don't have any Dixie Chicks CDs in my collection, though that's not due to any boycott. The only Ted Nugent CD I have is a compilation that I got off of Freecycle.

So, what can explain my different visceral reaction? The obvious answer is politics. A case of whose ox is gored. Without going into detail (this is not meant to be a political blog), I think it suffices to say that I generally liked Bush and that I am less than enthusiastic about Obama.  That affects my perception of insults aimed at either of these men. It's a normal human failing, that one sees often -- especially if one reads political blogs and the comments sections in them: Politicans A and B both do essentially the same thing. Commenters Fa (who likes A and detests B) and Fb (who likes B and detests A) come up with all sorts of distinctions to explain why what A and B did are not essentially the same. Fa argues that, in light of those differences, A was justified and B was not. Fb argues that B was justified and A was not. Let me be clear here: I am not saying that Fa or Fb is being dishonest. Each believes what he is saying. It's just that each is letting feelings influence thought more than he wants to admit.

So, what are the differences that could possibly explain why Nugent is OK and Maines is not?

Everyone knows that Nugent is a kook. That's true enough. But does that mean that if one guy is a putz all the time and the other is rarely a putz we forgive the all-around putz (it's in his nature; he can't help it) and hold a grudge against the occaisonal putz? It kind of reminds me of schoolkids. The genius who should ace everything put gets a C because he doesn't apply himself gets punished for not performing up to potential, while the not-so-bright kid gets praised for his C. But I don't think that should apply here.

Maines made her comments during a concert. The point of that distinction is that people go to concerts to hear music. They don't go to speeches or interviews at NRA conventions. Thus, it was a little more unfair of Maines to subject her audience to her politics than it was for Nugent to subject his audience to his. There is something to that. I would have been less bothered by Maines' comments if she had made them during a political rally or some other venue that is not what should be a no-politics zone -- like when Whoopi Goldberg and Margaret Cho made their rants during comedy routines.

On the other hand, I've seen footage of Nugent making political comments at his rallies, and they didn't bother me as much. Whose ox is gored? Not sure. The fact is, since political positioning is a big part of Ted's persona, that's not really a case of bait and switch. Similarly, I am more put off by what Maines said in concert than I would beby more-pointed anti-Bush comments.

Maines was not in the US. The point here is that she wasn't engaging in internal debate -- she was airing our dirty laundry in a foreign country. I try to cling to that argument. But in this shrinking world with the intertubes transmitting everything everywhere, I'm not sure that it holds water. Would I have been less bothered had Maines said that during a concert in New York? I must admit not.

Hollywood is (as a whole) leftist. This doesn't really affect what Maines said, or what Nugent said, or who has the right to say what or how over the top this is or that is. But it does affect how much patience I have for any given thing. It does get tiresome that so much of the entertainment industry is on the left, and -- more importantly -- convinced that anyone with conservative views (mine tend to be not so much conservative as libertarian, but that's another issue) isn't just wrong, but "other" and "bad." It does affect what is shown on TV and in the movies, and how believers in political philosophies are portrayed. And I remember a bunch of years back that Linda Ronstadt (or was it Barbra Streisand?) commenting that she would feel uncomfortable with the idea of Republicans being in her audience.

Looking at all of these, there may be some validity to some of them. But I think when it comes right down to it, this is largely a case of the ox-goring thing.

followup on run joey run

I have a couple of followup comments regarding yesterday's post about the David Geddes song, "Run Joey Run."

First, I went to grad school at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. There is a street there, called Geddes Avenue. I remember when I first got to Ann Arbor and saw Geddes Avenue, I thought "Just like the singer." And for the two years I was there I referred to it as "David Geddes Avenue" -- as in "Take Washtenaw until you hit David Geddes Avenue." Just one of those little jokes I go with that very few people (if any) know what they're about. While I was writing yesterday's post I looked David Geddes up on Wikipedia to make sure I had my facts straight. Turns out that David, whose real surname was Idema, had gone to the Unibversity of Michigan and takenm "Geddes" as a stage name after the street in Ann Arbor. So I was closer than I realized.

Second, At some point in the 1990's (I don't remember exactly when), the New York Post ran an article about bad pop songs. I sent them a letter to the editor (which they printed) in which I questioned their omission of "Run Joey Run" from the list. One evening after the letter was printed (maybe it was that night, I don't know) I got a call from a woman congratulating me on the letter. She told me that she had met the song's author at a party and he was very pompous, bragging about it. She was glad to see that others realized how bad the song was. I think she was drunk when she called me.

if only he had listened

I was thinking about the David Geddes song, "Run Joey Run." Not sure why.

For those who are unfamiliar, some background: RJR was the title song on David Geddes' 1975 album. It was a big hit, peaking at #4 on Billboard. The song was typical of those on the album in that it ended with a melodramatic twist. Sung from the first-person perspective by the titular Joey, the song recounts the night that Joey's girlfriend, Julie, died. Julie called him to warn that her father is angry and wants to kill him "for what we've done." Concerned, Joey comes over. The melodramatic twist comes when Julie's father tries to shoot Joey, but Julie steps in the way, taking the bullet and dying. Here's the video:

Actually, as much as I want to make fun of the song, it's the best thing on the album.

But my point in mentioning this is that there's one thing that bugs me about it. In the first verse, we hear, "She called me up late that night / She said 'Joe, don't come over.'" She explains that she and her dad had a fight, that dad has sworn vengance, and that dad has a gun. Given all that, I think Joey would have been prudent to stay away. But instead (as we learn in the second verse), he reacted by getting in his car and driving to Julie's place.

Wouldn't the whole sad story have ended much better if he had just listened to her and followed her advice?

Just asking...

in which i admit that something the monkees did sucked

A friend recently sent me a link to a video of the beginning of 33 1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee. I'm glad I watched it, but boy does it suck. Now, I'm a big Monkees fan. Really big. I take a back seat to no one when it comes to Monkee fanhood. Except for people who actually like 33 1/3 RPM. Boy, does it suck.

Just to fill in the unfamiliar, 33 was the Monkees' TV special from September, 1969. Their TV show had been cancelled, their movie, Head, had bombed, and they had done 6 albums (including the soundtrack to Head), and sales were declining. They put together this annoying self-referential special that was meant to satire their existence. Head had gone a long way to not-so-subtly, complain about their manufactured image. Some say (and I use the word "some" as a first-person singular) that Head was heavy-handed with its message. But 33 was a sledgehammer.

Did I mention that it sucked?

Now, the over-the-top delivery of the message would be forgivable if it had been done with humor or if the music was good. But no such luck. Fortunately (or un-, your call), you can see it on Youtube, nicely split into seven digestible pieces. I could try commenting on this mess, but I think it's better let it vomit for itself. So, here it is:

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

Part 4:

Part 5:

Part 6:

Part 7:

in the janey street fan club

Well, I am officially a member of the Janey Street fan club. My mebership package came in the mail today. It includes an autographed picture (which, unfortunately got damaged in the mail), a janey Street hat and (the reason I joined) a copy of her first solo album, Heroes, Angels & Friends on CD. I'm not a big fan club kind of guy, but I wanted the album on CD. It has never been officially released on CD, and Janey doesn't own the rights so she can't sell it. But she can give copies to her fans.

This record is as great as I remember it -- better in fact. There is a strong Bruce Springsteen influence, and it just rocks. I'd also like to retract something I said in earlier posts. Specifically, I implied that the songwriting here is immature compared to her nmore recent works. It isn't. The topics represent someone younger, but the songwriting is crisp.

I can't recommend this album enough

language development

I was in the car with the family, and the two younger ones were singing. Not whole songs, mind you, but just a couple of lines. First was "Workshop, baby, it's my life. I'm trying something out." Then it was "I wanna cross the line." Both lines are from the movie, Fruit Fly.

But the interesting thing I notices was the way my youngest, who is still learning to talk, pronounced the latter. It came out of his mouth as "Me wanna coss da yine." Most of that is simple mispronunciation that comes with toddlerhood. I remember, for example, that my oldest used to say "McDondants" instead of McDonalds, and my middle child used to call her brother "Eee-ah" because she couldn't manage the consonants in his name. But then there's the fact that he started with the word "me" instead of "I."

One aspect of his speech pattern, and this is fairly common, is that he uses the objective "me" instead of the subjective "I." He'll say, "Me hungry" or "Look what me do." But in singing the song, or the line from it, he already had the line constructed. He was repeating what he had already heard. And yet instead of literally repeating it, he translated it into his own version of the language.

I'd be curious to know what that sort of behavior tells us about psycholinguistics.

a bit on the songwriting talent at the janey street concert

Of course, the highlight of the Janey Street concert last week, was, of course, Janey Street herself.

But this was also an NSAI event (whether officially or not), so most of the people in the room were songwriters of one sort or another*. I didn't take a survey, but my impression was that most, if not all, of the songwriters there are more accomplished than I am. Of course, anyone who is active in NSAI is, pretty much by definition, more serious about it than I am. Many, however, were much more accomplished, either as musicians, or singers, or -- hell, I'll just say it -- as songwriters.

One of people who played songs after the concert was Freddy Monday. I had talked to him earlier, during the imtermission. That came about because he -- and I forget why -- said "China clipper calling Alameda," which I recognized from the Monkees' "Zilch." We got to talking about singwriting and the Monkees. One of his songs is "I Wanna Be Your Davy Jones." He managed to get Davy Jones to appear in the video:

It kind of reminded me of Eytan Mirsky's "I just Want to Be Your Steve McQueen."

Another songwriter there was Randi Drucker (who hosted the concert). She played a beautiful tearjerking song about an absent father. I'm not sure of the exact title, although I believe it was something along the lines of "Make the Monsters Go Away."

If I can find the time, I need to go to NSAI events in New York.

*I say "of one sort or another" because I want to use a loose enough definition of songwriter to include myself. I briefly described my songwriting in the first post on this blog.

UPDATE: I should have noted this: One of my favorite aspects of "I Want to Be Your Dav Jones" is that the song begins with a rif that's pretty much an exact copy of the opening riff of The Monkees' version of "Mary Mary."

seeing janey street in concert

The Janey Street concert was tonight. I blogged about it a few weeks ago.

Before I went, my wife asked me if I was expecting to enjoy it, or if I'd be dissapointed. She was referring to a phenomenon I've noted, that, well, things change. I alluded to it when I posted some thoughts about a Ducks Deluxe reunion. When Street's first album came out, it spoke to me, and I became a fan. While I am still a fan, I am aware that her msuic has changed. So, given that, would I enjoy seeing this musician perform, or would I be dissapointed for it reflecting where she is now, rather than where she was when I became a fan?

I said I'd enjoy it. And I hoped that I'd be right, even if I wasn't 100% sure.

I'm glad to say that was right. This performance was more fun than I thought it would be. Hell, it was more fun than I had dared hope it would be.

Janey didn't do any songs from that first solo album -- the one that had meant so much to me. "There Ain't No Angels in the Sky"? "Me And My Friends"? "In My Mind"? Not there. Janey was emphasizing the material on her more-recent CD, The Street Less Traveled as well as her collection of demos, Outtakes. Both albums are available on her website.

The following video gives a good idea of her contemporary performances:

I should note, though, that she was accompanied by Tom Murphy (guitar) and Dennis Pereca (keyboards). Murphy, had never played with her before, and did an amazing job of improvising leads that fit with the melodies of her songs. Pereca is her old songwriting and performing partner. I wasn't aware of this before tonight, but Janey and Dennis had done a couple of albums in the seventies -- under the name "Janey and Dennis."

This performance gave me a better appreciation for Janey's newer bluesier material, and I fully enjoyed it. I would go see her again if the opportunity presents itself. I think my favorite was "He Just Does" (as in "I don't know why he loves me / He just does."), which presents a happy view of relationships.

After two sets, separated by a brief intermission, Jany relinquished the stage so that members of the audience could perform some of their own songs. This was, afterall, a group of songwriters. That was followed by an impromptu mini-set of Janey, Dennis, and a few of the others doing Beatles's songs.

In my next post (unless something earth-shattering happens, r I just feel like writing about something else instead), I'll talk a little about the other songwriters who were there.

fruit fly

A friend on Facebook posted this video:

It's from the movie, Fruit Fly, a movie musical dealing with ethnic and sexual politics in the arts community in San Francisco. In the interests of full disclosure, I should note that H.P. Mendoza, who wrote and directed the movie, is a friend of mine (his boyfriend and my wife have been friends for something like 25 years). My favorite aspect is the music. In case you're interested, the movie is (for a limited time) showing for free on Hulu. Go here.

Following are a couple more videos of songs from Fruit Fly:

I'm sorry I couldn't find a video for one of my favorite songs. In "Like This," Bethesda describes her performance art show to Windham. It has a very Gilbert and Sullivan feel to it. I assume Mendoza is aware of that, but I have to wonder if he purposely set out to copy G&S's style, or if it just shook out that way.

tatiana moroz at a libertarian convention

I was at the New York Libertarian Party convention last weekend. Not what one would usually think of as a great place for music. But there was music there, and it was unexpectedly good.

The singer was a woman named Tatiana Moroz. I'd never heard of her before, though I gather that if I spent more time at Libertarian functions, I might have. As you can see from her website, Moroz is big on Libertarian politics.

As to the music, Moroz did a short four-song set, consisting of two original songs, a Bob Dylan cover ("Masters of War"), and a medley of "Greensleeves" and "A Home in the Meadow."

The performance was understated -- Just Moroz and her guitar. And I saw nothing fancy in her playing. It was pretty much standard strumming. But that voice. She sounds like a songbird. It was wonderful. I'm glad to have seen and heard her.

I bought her album, Tatiana (which for anyone interested is available from her web site). It's twelve original songs. The arrangements are more full than what we got at the convention (where, as I said, it was just Tatiana and her guitar). At times she sounds like a folkie, and at times she's adult contemporary. Sometimes she rocks a bit. The disc is well worth the price.

Here's a video of Moroz doing another Dylan cover, "Make You Feel My Love":

For what it's worth, I am not a big L libertarian, although my political thinking is strongly informed by libertarian philosophy.

i didn't see the basher

Nick Lowe performed in New York tonight. I didn't go. The cheap tickets were $50. The good seats were $65.

Nick Lowe is one of my favorite singers. The first concert I ever went to was Nick Lowe. Technically it was Tom Petty, and Nick Lowe was the opening act. But I went to see Nick, and left when Petty took the stage. That was at the Nassau Colliseum, and he was promoting The Abominable Showman. Since then I saw Nick perform at the Ritz when he was supporting The Rose of England. I was in college and reviewed that concert for the campus newspaper. I also saw Nick as part of Little Village, supporting that band's dissapointing eponymous album.

But I haven't seen Nick in concert during this, the old crooner phase of his career, since he reinvented himself. He's come to New York a few times, and every time there's some reason or other that I don't make it to the show. And each time, I wonder if I was foolish for not going. At Nick's age, and at this stage of his career, and his having abused his body as much as he has, each tour could be the last.

But this time the tickets just seemed pricier than I wanted to pay. And maybe it's just as well since I was too tired today to enjoy a concert.

And still...

on posting frequency

When I began this blog, my goal was to post every day. Well, that hasn't happened. Unfortunately, I simply don't have the time and energy for that aggressive a schedule. I will do what I can. Hopefully I won't get too light...

a nice coincidence

A few posts ago, I wrote about Janey Street. She'll be performing a house concert at the end of the month. Bear in mind that I haven't seen her name in the media for years (unless you count things like Youtube or CDBaby, when I purposely looked her up).

So, less than a week after I got the invite to her house concert, I am looking through the Queens Tribune, a weekly newspaper in Queens. There's a teaser on the cover about Janis Ian coming to give her first performance in Queens. Inside I see there's an interview with her. Instead of reading from the beginning of the article, I started in the middle, with the question: "How do you feel about performing in Queens?" In her response, she said that "my best friend Janey Street is from Flushing; we used to meet under the clock all the time."

By the way, I note that that bit about meeting under the clock was a nice tip of the hat to Janey's single, "Under the Clock."

Nice coincidence.

amusing post on reddit

I find this kind of amusing.

Somebody posted on Reddit, that he had just learned about Nick Lowe naming a record Bowi in response to David Bowie naming an album Low.

Fine. there were lots of responses from people praising Nick Lowe, or praising David Bowie, or making some other more-or-less relevant comment.

But then it started. Someone posted the following:

David Bowie used incredibly prolific and meaningful career.
It's super-effective.
Nick Lowe is confused.
Nick Lowe hurt itself in its confusion.
Nick Lowe is irrelevant.

I'm puzzled by the fact the poster felt the need to present this comment with one sentence per line. It almost appears as poetry. But the meaning, which can summed up as "Bowie is great. Lowe isn't," is quite clear. And the debate ensued, with people arguing about Nick Lowe's place in rock and roll history.

You know, way back when I cared about baseball I liked Jerry Koosman. He was a good pitcher. But he was no Tom Seaver.

billy bremner. new album imminent. yawn.

I've gotten a couple of emails over the last couple of days from a Billy Bremner yahoo group, indicating that Bremner has a new solo album coming out soon.

I honestly wish I cared more about it. Bremner was a member of Rockpile, one of my favorite bands. Though on the other hand he wasn't the driving force, creatively, of the band. That role fell on Dave Edmunds and Nick Lowe. He did, I'll admit, lend killer vocals to a couple tracks on the band's album, Seconds of Pleasure. (As an aside, I'll never know for sure, but I'll bet the album title originated with someone's joke about someone else's sexual stamina.) But his solo work has been less than thrilling for me.

It started off reasonably well. The first single of his that I heard (though it was the second one released) was 1982's "Meek Power" b/w "Yes Please!" That was a great single. Pure power pop, that was easily the match of the best Rockpile had ever done. But he did other singles around that time, and none of them were up to that energy. "The Price is Right" came close. And "Laughter Turns to Tears" was a really good single, though it was much mellower than I was expecting. You can hear it here:

I'm not saying his output was bad. It just wasn't what I wanted, or what I had hoped for from a member of Rockpile. Of course, it made sense that his own style was not the same as the group's.

At any rate, I bought his first solo album, Bash!, as soon as it came out. It disappointed me. Stylistically, it was much more like his singles (and I don't mean that lorious first one I had heard) than like his former band. Fortunately, when it was rereleased decades later, they added most of the tracks from those initial singles, including both "Meek Power" and "Yes Please!"

When his second solo album, A Good Week's Work, came out 15 or so years later, I bought it right away and was even more disappointed. The music sounded OK, but was formulaic and nothing caught my interest -- it sounded like so many albums I've heard by broken-up and reunited bands that I've heard. The hooks are there, and I can't point to any specific thing wrong, except it doesn't grab me. 

When the third solo album, No Ifs, Buts, Maybes, came out about five years ago, I didn't bother buying it. I've listened to those samples on Amazon, and it sounds like it's better than the second album. But something holds me back.

So now, another album is coming out soon. I just don't know. I'll probably listen to samples on Amazon and then make a decision. Or not.

At any rate, this is how I like to remember Billy:

i want to title this with a bad pun using the word "street," but i can't come up with the right one

I got an invitation to a house concert at the end of this month. Not big news in and of itself, except that the performer will be Janey Street. To most people that might not mean anything. "Janey who?" But to me...

It was my sophomore year of college, and I was the music editor for a campus newspaper. One of the review albums I received from Arista Records was Heroes, Angels and Friends, the debut album by Janey Street. I still remember the letter from the publicist -- it noted that Janey was a Queens native (which was a tie-in because I was at Queens College).

I loved that album from the first spin. There was no getting-to-know-you period, or it-has-to-grow-on-you phase. This was a consciousness-changing reaction I had. I've only reacted that way to records a handful of times at most. Dave Edmunds' D.E. 7th and the Beat Farmers' Tales of the New West are the only ones that readilly come to mind.

I haven't heard the record in quite a while, but I still can remember lyrics (forgive me if I make a mistake -- this is from memory):

From "Say Hello to Ronnie":

Say hello to Ronnie.
Send my love to Sue.
Give my best to Bobby.
And here's a kiss for you.
I'm working on the night shift.
I need to survive.
Living from day to day
Keeping my dreams alive.

From "Jimmy (Lives in the House Down the Street)":

Jimmy lives in the house down the street
He's got a smile and a hold on me (yeah)
Jimmy's got a girl for each day of the week.
I know he's kissing them. Why not me?

Street's songs reminded me of Springsteen, in that she sang of ordinary blue-collar folks and their lives, coaxing drama out of the humdrum. Her songs did show more optimism than Springsteen's, and her music didn;t quite have the same power as his. But I saw her as a female Springsteen. It also didn't hurt that I developed a bit of a fanboy crush on her.

There was a single, "Under the Clock," that dented the Billboard charts, and a video:

I was a little surprised at the choice, since I thought "Under the Clock" was the weakest song on the album.

Anyway, time went by and there was no followup album.

Years later, I tried to get a copy of HA&F on CD, but couldn't find it. I tried to copy my vinyl to CD, but found a skip in one of the tracks. So I really wanted to get an official CD. I found Janey on CDBaby, as she had recorded and (I assume) self-released another album. I listened to a few samples. The music was more mature. But it didn't move me the way the first album did. I didn't buy it, but I emailed Janey through CDBaby to ask if I could somehow get the first album on CD. She wrote back, but to say that the first album wasn't on CD. Oh, and I should buy the new album. She's sure I'll like it.

So that's been that for a few years. I keep toying with the idea of copying my vinyl onto CD, but the issue of that scratch keeps holding me back.

So now I got this invitation. The natural question is how? Well, I was, for one year, a member of Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI). And I still get occasional emails related to the group. Janey, at this point (in addition to performing and songwriting) does a variety of music-related jobs -- running songwriting workshops, lecturing, and working as a song evaluator for NSAI.

Well, the latest NSAI-related e-mail was a notice that she will be in New York, offering mentoring sessions for songwriters, and performing at this house concert. I don't think I'll sign up for a mentoring session, but I'll definitely go to see her perform. 

what's basic to some isn't basic to others...

My sister posted something on Facebook asking for help identifying a song. She wrote:

I'm trying to find the name of some music. It was something like second line or second verse or second something. And I think it had the name Avery in it. It is a swingy tune that is popular in New Orleans, and sounds sort of like Rock Around the Clock. Can anyone help me?

As it turns out, she was looking for something called "Joe Avery's Piece," which I haven't ever heard of. Following is a video:

I'm not sure what she was referring to when she wrote about "second line or second verse or second something." Maybe the version she heard had lyrics. At any rate, I can see why she thought of "Rock Around the Clock." There are parts of the melody that are very similar. But all that's neither here nor there.

The reason I am bringing it up is that someone suggested:

Possibly the bouncy pop tune "Henry the Eighth?" It has the lyric 'second verse, same as the first!' and was made popular in the early sixties by either The Monkees or The Turtles.

I read that and almost had a conniption. The Turtles? The Monkees? Everyone knows that I'm Henry VIII, I Am was a pop hit for Herman's Hermits. I'll also note that it was a hit in 1965 (not the early sixties), and that the above suggestion is internally inconsistent since the Monkees weren't even assembled until 1966.

But then my more rational, my more forgiving, side asserts itself. And I remember that what may be obvious to me may not be obvious to someone with a different set of interests.

As I mentioned in a recent post, I hadn't heard of "Trance" as a musical genre before last week. And when, at a Passover Seder, I asked my sister-in-law about it, I referred to it as a new form. She chuckled a little. How would I have reacted if she had laughed. I probably would have joked it away. But part of me would have thought something like "Well who the hell cares?" Similarly, the responder to my sister's post may not care as much about the Monkees, the Turtles, or Herman's Hermits.

Also, I will happily admit to the many gaps in my knowledge of pop music. I know what I know, and not  what I don't. One of the reasons I didn't ultimately pursue a career in music journalism was that I didn't want to have to know all the things one should know in that field. But that's a story for another post.

Before I leave you with a a video of Herman's Hermits doing "...Henry..." I just want to note that I was very pleased that my sister knew it wasn't a Monkees song.

trance

I learned something new today.

Going through the CDs I got on Freecycle, I came across several various artists compilations with the word "Trance" in the title.  Eventually I realized (and my sister-in-law confirmed), that "Trance" is a genre of music. Of course, I am behind the times, having now learned the Trance developed in the 1990s,so it's not exactly new.

At any rate, I don't like it. I find the sound annoying, and vaguely discomforting. Listening to it, I envision a club full of twenty-somethings doing ecstacy. Alternatively, it reminds me of any number of stores I've been in -- record stores, trendy clothing stores, skateboard shops -- that play the music in the background because studies have shown that people listening to it will buy more stuff.

In case anyone reading this (assuming there is someone reading this) isn't familiar with the music, and wants to get an idea, here's a video that should help.

disappointed

OK, I'm disappointed.

Going through the haul of CDs I got on Freecylce, I came across one by a band called "Bumpin' Uglies."

I really really really wanted to like it, since "bumping uglies" is my second-favorite euphemism for sex. But, alas, 'twas not meant to be. The album is boring. I'm talking four-hour-history-lecture boring. Gone, it is.

time to try selling

Well, I got the 2012 edition of the Songwriter's Market. This makes three years in a row that I bought it. Maybe this year I'll get around to putting together disks of demos and sending them to music publishers or record companies.

Part of the reason I haven't done so in the past is that I haven't had a whole lot of material to send. Generally, the places listed in there indicate how many demos that want you to send. And it's usually more than one. Right now, I have three demos that I can send -- which is more than I had last year at this time. But of those, only one is really fully produced.

"Jackpot" is a fully produced demo, recorded by County Q, a studio in Nashville. It's the kind of thing that, if you heard it playing on a C&W radio station it wouldn't seem out of place. "Music No One Else Can Hear" is a much less elaborate recording. My friend, Scott Milner, recorded it for an album he did with his brothers, collectively called The Milner Brothers. They included it on their album, Haven't Lost a Thing. So the production value is good, but very simple. "Do You Think of Me (Now and Again)" is a rough demo. There's no way around that fact. Scott recorded it in 2010. I think I can justify the simple mix in that it's a slow song that doesn't require a full arrangement, and this lets the song stand on its own, without using fancy studio wizardry.

A year ago, at this time, I only had two demos to send off. I had all three recordings, but I hadn't registered the copyright on "Do You Think of Me (Now and Again)," and I'm not about to try to sell a song without first registering it with Washington. Now, I'd rather work with more than three demos, but I gotta start sending things off sometime. Then again, maybe with one or two more demos...

There is one label, Nervous Records, that I find appealing. And they are open to new (i.e., unknown) songwriters. But they specialize in psychobilly, and none of my material really fits that genre. Now, there's a song idea I've been working on and off with, that would lend itself to a psychobilly arrangement. Without going into great detail, the title is "Bleed Me a River." It arose out of an attempt to write a Louis Lamour novel in song form. And it was partially inspired by "Run the Ridges," a Kingston Trio song. Here's a video of attendees at a Kingston Trio fantasy camp performing that song (just to give you an idea:

I have almost all of "Bleed..." done, but I kind of put it aside a bit more than a year ago. I was discussing it with Scott, and he had some harsh (though not undeserved criticism of it. First, he noted that the narrator was without redeeming quality. Unlike "Run the Ridges" or "Poor Ellen Smith" (another song that inspired me to want to write a Lamour Novel-song), there is little ambiguity. He said that, as a singer, he would have a hard time getting himself to sing something so negative. Also, he noted some incorrect use of old Western jargon. Being that I grew up in New York City, and my kowledge of the old west is very limited, that makes sense. But, if we're talking about a psychobilly song, those two flaws in the song may not be fatal.

Now, of course, if I decide to go with "Bleed," I have to finish it up, polish it up, record a rough demo, register the copyright (the fact that I haven't done that explains why the title is all I'm putting in this blogpost),  and get a good demo made (which is expensive). So I have to decide if it's worth it.

But meanwhile, I really have to put together some mailing packages, and try plugging my songs. I may not get anywhere, but at least I'll know I tried

a blog devoted to bad records

My wife found a great blog.

A guy named Darryl W. Bullock blogs about the world's worst records. Like Bullock, I have an appreciation for truly awful records. But he blogs specifically about the topic. As near as I can figure, he sticks to a once-per -week schedule, and typically includes audio, so you can hear the awful songs.

Interesting for me, he discusses a lot of music that I have in my collection, though I typically have them on compilations as opposed to having the original single. That's true of Eilert Pilarm, a Swedish Elvis impersonator who doesn't have a good enough grasp of English to pull it off. Also of Congresswoman Malinda Jackson Parker (yes, she was a congresswoman -- in Liberia) who recorded two songs about mosquities. Here is one of them:

Aw, heck. While we're at it, here's a Eilert Pilarm doing "Jailhouse Rock" (with lyrics):

I also enjoyed Bullock's entry on The Buggs (a thinly disguised Beatles ripoff from the 1960s), largely because he discussed a truly awful record that I used to own on vinyl.

I love perusing Bullock's blog, and repeatedly finding myself saying, "Yeah! I remember that! I remember that!" Go give it a read.

childhood listening

When I was a child growing up, there were a lot of records in the house. Most of them were classical, and I never really listened to them. I suppose that's in part due to the fact that my grandparents were always pushing me to listen to classical music, which made it somewhat unnatractive. I often, however, listened to the few other  records (or at least parts of them) that my parents had.

Following are some memories of them:

Meet the Beatles (The Beatles)
For some reason I generally listened only to the first side. "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and "All My Loving" were the first and last songs on the side, and they were my favorites, so I couldn't take a short cut and listen to only one or two songs. Yes, technically I suppose I could have picked up the needle and moved it. But I didn't. So the songs on the side 1 are much more embedded in my mind than those on side two. It was years before I found out that my father didn't like the Beatles. One other random thought: For some reason, when I listened to "It Won't Be Long," I pictured the Beatles as frogs onstage, jumping each time someone said "Yeah" in the chorus. Mind you, in my mental image they were also jumping one at a time. Someone sang the line "It won't be long." Then there are a bunch of "yeah!"s. Each "yeah" is sung by one of them who is jumping forward and either from stage left to stage right or vice versa. It was quite a disturbing mental picture.

Moving (Peter Paul and Mary)
As with the Beatles album above, I generally listened to the first side and not the second. In fact, it was often only "Puff The Magic Dragon." Sometimes, though, I would listen through to "This Land is Your Land," and sometimes I would listen to the whole side. On rare occasions, I would listen to the second side. There was a time I thought they were all Jewish. That impression was based on two things: 1) Peter and Paul both had goatees (which I, for some reason, associated with rabbis); and 2) on side two, they did a song called "Man Come Into Egypt" which used the story of Moses and the biblical exodus as an allegory for the then-modern civil rights movement. For the record Peter is Jewish. Years later I interviewed them when they performed at Queens College. I spent a few minutes with each one, discussing political issues of the day. Peter actually gave me his publicist's number so I could call and we could talk at length. He explained that he was impressed that I was talking about real issues rather than glitzy Hollywood stuff. I called and left a message. But I never followed up and never did write the article. I was too disgusted with their knee-jerk leftism. But I still like a lot of their music -- this album in particular.

Oliver! (Broadway soundtrack)
For a long time I only listened to "Pick a Pocket or Two" and "Be Back Soon." Gradually I started listening to the whole album. This is by far my favorite Broadway soundtrack. And to make it even better, I played Fagin in my sixth-grade class production of the play. Admittedly not much of a singer, I was reduced to rapping "Pick a Pocket or Two." Our production was abrdiged, so I didin't have to do Fagin's other numbers, "Be Back Soon" and "Reviewing the Situation." My favorite tracks (as of now) are "Consider Yourself" and "Oom-Pah-Pah." But there are some clever lyrics throughout.

My Son the Folksinger (Allan Sherman)
As a kid, I didn't always get the humor. Even after it was explained to me. But with time and an increased knowledge of pop culture and the references that were built into the songs, I gradually developed a better and better appreciation for Sherman's work. THere are several parodies here, for which I hadn't heard the originals until decades later. Notably, I didn't hear "The Streets of Loredo" (which is parodied as "The Streets of Miami") until I was in my upper thirties and bought a box set compilation of Dick Curless CDs. I'll also note that, in a bit of anal-retentiveness, I used to list this album in my database as "Allan Sherman's Mother Presents My Son the Folk Singer."

words. fail. me. (part 5)